


Felidae

by Dealice



Category: Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Adventure tri.
Genre: Cats, Feel-good, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21791398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dealice/pseuds/Dealice
Summary: Taichi and Yamato and kittens - oh my!
Relationships: Ishida Yamato | Matt Ishida/Yagami Taichi | Tai Kamiya
Comments: 18
Kudos: 43





	1. Hey Kids!

**Author's Note:**

> A birthday present for myself and an early christmas/ Hannukah/ Yuleblot/ Your holiday of choise present for you!  
> Techinically, it's a continuation to Singularitites in that it takes place in the same univerese and in chronological order, but for the most part this can be read as a stand-alone piece.  
> Hope you'll like it!

Laptop? Check.

House keys? Check.

_Meaw~_

Wallet? Check.

Yamato rummaged through the pockets of his jeans to make sure the whereabouts of his most functionally critical possessions weren’t neglected somewhere.

Phone? Check.

Vespa keys? Check.

_Meaw!_

Right.

Yamato stopped performing a full-on body search on himself, and tried pinpointing the source of the mewling complaints.

He moved the ceramic pot, throwing dirt every which way and flinging the roses – all of which died anyway, so it’s not like he partook in floracide, all right? And there it was: the wee one.

So tiny, it could sleep in Yamato’s palm.

A Ginger, blue-eyed fur ball hissed when Yamato’s big-arse face appeared.

The kitten shook all over like crazy, and it mewled like a baby crying; only because it was so tiny, the mewling was more like a squeaky toy going off.

But the kitten didn’t run away.

Odd.

It'd be better if Yamato didn’t touch it, so he won’t leave traces of his smell on the wee one. If he did, its mum wouldn’t recognize it and reject it.

Yamato took a step back and surveyed the small yard.

No mama or brothers or sisters around.

He checked his phone for the time. 11:45. If he won’t take off in five minutes, he’d be late for his Analytic Mechanics lecture.

_Meaw! Meaw!_

But it was about to rain.

But his professor said she’d be going over the test material.

_Meaw!_

Right, sparing _five_ minutes is really a non-issue, in’nit?

Yamato slid against the wall till he was crouching, arms hanging between his legs and his laptop bag weighing him down.

_Meaw! Meaw!_

_So_ tiny. One gust of wind and Mr. Kitty cat would fly away.

_Meaw…_

How long has it been here?

_Meaw._

12:15.

There were chicken leftovers in the fridge. Yamato could always cook Taichi something else for dinner.

His instinct was to jump to his feet, but Yamato refrained. Instead, he carefully erected so to not stress out the kitten any more than the poor thing already was, and vaulted the stairs back up to the flat.

Dashing to the kitchen, Yamato waved his fingers in front of the open fridge door as if trying to use a level 5 summoning spell on the right box. He moved yesterday’s curry away and the plate of chopped onions.

There it was, a sad little chicken.

Yamato plucked out a few fatty pieces and tucked them into a napkin.

Two minutes after, he sailed down the stairs and carefully placed the meat near the baby-cat – not too far away to force the kitten out of its comfort zone, but not close enough to rub his smell all over its fur.

Before Yamato even backed off all the way, the kitten’s pink nose hovered towards the food and its petit frame shivered in anticipation. However the cat could, it tried reaching for the chicken bits, but the fragile body couldn’t carry the weight and the kitten flopped.

Where’s its mummy?

13:07

Right, well, Yamato’s professor was a wanker anyway.

He ran back up to the flat.

Towel? Check.

Hot water bottle? Check.

Yamato glanced over at the time again: 13:20.

Taichi’s number? Dialing!

After a ring and a half – “Oya, sexy!”

Normally, Yamato’d transform the action of eye-rolling into an audible medium and dump it on bastard Taichi. Today, though – “You free?”

“Just finished. Alright?”

_Meaw!_

“Do you still have Miko’s carrier somewhere?”

“I reckon? Yamato, what’s-”

“Can you bring it over to my place?”

“I- yeah?”

“When can you get here?”

“Give me ten?”

“Safe.”

“Yamato?”

“Mmm?”

_Meaw!_

“I love you?”

“… I love you too…”

***

When Taichi poked his head through Yamato’s apartment complex, he found one blonde Yamato slouching on the stairs against the wall, cradling a towel.

A mewling towel.

Miko’s old cage abandoned on the floor, Taichi dived on his knees next to Yamato and peeked at the bundle of fluff making noises – with its carrot tail poking the air and pink little paws!

That’s it. Taichi was gone.

_Meaw! Meaw!_

Sold.

_Meaw!_

He made all sorts of incomprehensible baby-talk sounds in between squeaks.

_Meaw!_

His eyes were _this_ big. Yamato will never cease to be amazed by the sheer amount of “CUTE!” radiating off Taichi. How can he just sit here, with a baby kitten in the room, and compete with it over the “CUTE!”?! What is this even?! 

“I wanna take it to the vet.” Because the bloody solar system would supernova before Yamato would show Taichi just how cute he thought he was. He won’t hear the end of it. Well, of course Taichi had figured it out and used this vital information to manipulate the shit out of Yamato, but that doesn’t mean Yamato should encourage it!

“Yeah, I get that much…” Taichi said, keeping his voice hushed so to not startle the wee one, his eyes full of something Yamato couldn’t fully find a name for. “Wanna take my car?”

Somehow, Yamato’s free hand moved without him telling it to and kneaded Taichi’s ear shell. “I can’t really take the Vespa out, now, can I?”

Taichi smiled and went to retrieve the abandoned cat carrier.

Together, they fluffed it up some more with Yamato’s old blanket and inserted the fuzz roll in its midst to the sound of some more soft ‘ _Meaw’_ s.

As soon as the car pulled down the driveway, Mr. Fluff became a backseat opera-singer. He – she? – went full out with the song of his people – the extended version. Oh, and it was on “repeat.” Yay.

In the car, Taichi drove slower than usual, being extra cautious doing turns, and every red light he spent peeking at the mewling plastic box in Yamato’s lap.

Someone honked behind.

“Eyes on the road, Chi,” Yamato said at the flashing green.

“I wanna sit on your lap, too…” Taichi mumbled as he pressed the gas pedal and Yamato ignored him.

After a couple of minutes of straightening the rear-view mirror, Yamato asked. “Do you know a veterinarian, by the way?”

“Wait,” Tachi’s head pulled back into the seat rest, “where’ve we been driving?”

“Well-”

“You barmy bastard Yamato.”

“Eat a dick!”

Taichi’s stupid-capacity showed on his too pleased of a mug. “Mmmm… You would, would ya.”

Yamato sat with his hands under his ass to avoid punching Taichi in the ribs. He just didn’t fancy dying yet – but so _help_ Taichi when they park. “Do you know a vet, or not?!”

“I think Miko’s old vet‘s still around.” 

Entering the cement island of Tokyo, they made the U-turn into Hikarigaoka, melting from nostalgia. Any conversation died down, leaving a vacuum only days long since gone, flashing lights in the sky, summers, and old cartoons could almost fill – but never really.

Yamato watched his reflection staring back at him from the glass window, layered with tall towers and grey constructs racing by behind it like a transparent sheet paper in an old movie.

“We’re here,” Taichi announced as he parked in front of Daktari Animal Hospital, its red signs and posters greeting them way too happily.

“Fancy.”

Taichi didn’t answer and got out of the car to go help Yamato and the ‘OMG SO CUTE I CAN’T EVEN’ meawing baby.

_Meaw…_

Case in point.

“Is it a _he_ or a _she,_ by the way?” Taichi asked as the passed the automated door.

“I don’t know, Taichi. I’m not in the habit of checking out cats’ bollocks.”

“Since when are you not in the habit of checking out bollocks?”

If Yamato was about to get smart, he didn’t get the chance. Inside the lobby, they were seated by a pearly-toothed receptionist on one of the pseudo-leather brown couches and were told a doctor would be with them shortly.

_Meaw! Meaw!_

And she really was with them shortly, so that was brill!

_Meaw! Meaw! Meaw!_

Dr. Honoda, all smiles and a scrub with Kiki’s Delivery Service’s Jiji prints all over it, admitted them to her heated office – which did not skimp on colourful, animal-shaped magnets with sticky notes peeking under them.

_Meaw!_

“Yes, please put our cute friend over here,” she said - _Meaw_! – and gestured with the flick of her wrist towards the steely examination table. “What seems to be the problem?”

_Meaw!_

“I found it today. Near my house. I tried feeding it, but it didn’t eat and I think it can’t move,” Yamato answered as Taichi helped him hoist the carrier and opened the metal lattice door. The doctor reached inside and with a few tugs at the towel, picked up the snuffulafagus baby. She weighted it in her palm and it didn’t even fill out the full surface of her hand – that’s how tiny the baby was!

_Meaw! Meaw!_

“What did you try feeding it with?” The vet, and her eccentric scrub, asked.

“Chicken leftovers.”

Dr. Honoda nodded. “He’s a three week old boy,” she said, “he needs milk formula feeding with a syringe. He can’t eat meat yet.” She probed the ginger fur ball and lifted the baby for Yamato and Taichi to have a better view. “And he’s being eaten by nasty little fleas. See these?” She pointed at tiny brown clogs. “That’s blood.”

She ran her finger along the fuzzy spine for any odd textures or abnormalities, and nodded again, as if carrying a conversation all by herself for the lack of an intelligible dialogue partner. “You said he didn’t move?”

Yamato nodded.

“I’ll give him an x-ray now. Then he needs to be de-wormed.” She picked up an 80s-something-looking wired phone – the one with all the buttons – waited till the ring dial subsided in favour of a human voice, and went, “Takashi, I need you in room 14, please.”

Give or take a minute, a small-framed bloke-man-dude, who couldn’t have been much older than Taichi or Yamato themselves, entered the clinic from a door none of them paid attention to, what with all the stickers on it used as camouflage. 

“It’ll take a few minutes,” she informed them.

“Where’s the loo?” Yamato asked, almost as if he had been planning the schedule for his bladder.

“Down the hall and to the left,” Takashi answered.

Yamato nodded and exited the room, leaving Taichi staring at his back and not full-on believing him. But it’s not like he can glomp himself to Yamato’s back and make sure he pees, now can he? Not in public, anyway.

So instead he checked out the medical appliances, read all the labels on the bottles from left to right, read the labels on the bottles from right to left, examined the memo, and once in a while snuck a peek at the examinations and preparation the esteemed doctors were performing on the kitty cat. 

Yamato doesn’t usually take that long to take a piss. Maybe Taichi should check what’s up? Yes! Yes? … No? Yes…? Yes.

Opening the door and closing it, it took Taichi one wobble of his head to detect, assess, and create a mental enclosure around his target.

Yamato stood in the middle of the hall, close enough to the door but also kinda too far, stared at a fixed coordinate between his feet and wiped his face, over and over, with the back of his dirty denim sleeves.

Taichi approached him. One step. Good. One more step. Yamato didn’t notice him yet. Great progress. One more – so to not scare the Ishida off. Excellent. Almost there-

Taichi slipped his fingers into Yamato’s palm – the one which wasn’t busy scooping snot.

From the pull in his muscles, Taichi interpreted the situation as one where Yamato would have jerked his hand away and given someone a square what-for for touching his private place, but didn’t want to raise a scene.

But then he found Taichi, so he relaxed some.

Taichi squeezed the fingers he was holding.

The auntie sitting across the hall gave them funny looks, but screw her and screw her stupid visor that she’s wearing indoors for some reason and then some.

“You alright, mate?” Taichi asked.

“Brill.”

But there was this tiny, _tiny_ crack in his voice which prevented Taichi from believing him.

He tugged at Yamato’s wrist and Yamato’s obedience – going back inside the Dr.’s room – came accompanied by a fraction of resistance, right there in his All Star clad toes.

The ride home isn’t going to be easy.

In the room, Dr. Honoda and Takashi were examining a tablet and Dr. Honoda pointed or circled stuff on the flat screen with her smart pen, explaining the works to her assistant.

Once acknowledging their newly formed presence in the room, Dr. Honoda leaped and skipped and positioned herself right between Taichi and Yamato with her portable screen held in the air.

“See this?” She asked, pointing at what seemed to be a vertebra.

Yamato hummed; Taichi said, “Yes.”

“Are you familiar with the terms Cerebellar Hypoplasia?”

Their vacant mugs and dead eyes were all the answer she needed.

“Cerebellar Hypoplasia occurs when the cerebellum, which controls motor skills in vertebrates, is not completely mature. That’s why he can’t walk correctly.” She petted the top of the little head and moved her fingers behind the kitty’s ear when her actions were reciprocated with a yet another, soft ‘Meaw. _’_

“Many of these little guys are being euthanized due to lack of awareness of this condition, and it’s a real shame. He really wants to live – he eats like a champ and is excited about interacting with people. With just a little care, little boys like him can live happy, healthy lives and purr at belly rubs.” She raised her head and looked at the boys expectedly. “Are you perhaps interested in giving him a forever-home?”

Yamato swallowed and looked around the room, his fist clenching on his thigh. “We-“

“Give us a moment?” Taichi told more than asked Dr. Honoda and dragged Yamato a few steps back so they could have their routine round of hush-hush-WE-ARE-NOT-GOING-TO-SCREAM-HERE! argument.

“Tai-“

“Showing it kindness and then throwing it back on the street is just cruelty,” Taichi said before Yamato even got a word squeezed in. No, more like he stated it and all his 11 years of leadership skills were there to back him up.

Shit. If they were home, that look on him would get Yamato to tear Taichi’s stupid One Piece shirt off and throw him on the bed. Since home was _not_ where they’re at and too many spectators were present for Yamato to bend Taichi over the table, however – “Taichi! It’s an animal! It’s a commitment! And a responsibility! I don’t know if I’m ready for it yet…”

“ _We’re_ ready for it.”

And suddenly Yamato’s heart did the rumba.

“And look how cute he is!”

Somehow, Yamato found himself nodding. God, Taichi!

But the smile pushing Taichi’s dumb face to all different sides of the room was so worth it. Yamato kinda fought off his reflex to punch it off as a self-defense mechanism.

At the same time, though, Taichi clearly struggled with his instinct that so, _so_ wanted him to commit PDA and put Yamato’s wrist between his thumb and index, so they were kinda on equal grounds? Instead, he said what he needed with the flick of his pupils; guided Yamato too.

Containing his full-on-nutter smiler face as much as his facial muscles allowed him, Taichi said, “Yeah, we’ll take the little bugger.”

“Cheers!” Dr. Honoda and Takashi both practically beamed! “That’s wonderful news! All right, so I will now perform laser on therapy him. He needs to be neutered, so come back in a month and a half. Since he’s still young-“

“Wait,” Taichi opened the note app on his phone, “Ooookkk, continue.”

“Since he’s still young, he needs to be stimulated to go to pee and do his poopies.” She lifted the kitten – “ _Meaw!” –_ and showed Taichi and Yamato with a paper towel exactly where to rub – _Meaw! Meaw! Meeeeaaaw!_ – till a small yellow stain covered it.

“And as I said, he needs to be fed through a syringe every four hours-“

Yamato glanced at Taichi. Undeterred by the long list of novel responsibilities, Taichi squeezed Yamato’s hand under the table in response without even looking back.

“Kittens his age can’t monitor their own body heat yet, so he has to be kept warm at all times.” She turned towards Takashi, “anything else?”

Takashi contemplated for a moment and stepped forward with a small bow. “He hasn’t yet developed his grooming behaviour, so I encourage you to rub him with a tooth brush and wash his bum with baby shampoo.” He bowed again.

Dr. Honoda showed them what physiotherapy to perform and how frequently, added a to-buy list along with kitty-oriented medicine prescriptions, and sent them on their way.

They exited and made a turn straight to the first pet appliance shop on the street – which was mother-effing huge! 

Just as Yamato finished gawking at the three story monument of a store, two girls exited it, towing behind them two pooches who got their summer hair-cut – Oh no! – into a square. 

Yamato may not have displayed his sad-emoji face, but Taichi addressed it nonetheless:

“I solemnly swear I will never alter our cat – or any other living being – into ironic commentary about the economic bubble, the ultra-consumeristic modern culture, and Y generation’s thirst for social validation.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

Strengthening the grip on the carrier’s handle, the two proud new fathers walked into the store and it didn’t take more than 10 minutes before Taichi ripped a little bit of everything from the shelves – his excitement accompanied by booming “OOOOH!”s and “THIS!”s.

Yamato was already saying his bye-byes to his savings. It’s not like he can _stop_ Taichi when he’s regressing into his 11 year-old soul again.

Five more minutes, and their shopping basket brimmed with kitty formula, feeding bottles, feeding syringes, raised cat feeder, de-fleaing comb, micro-fleece baby blankets, a scratching board, a stick with a feather on one end, sand, deodorized and shallow litter box, scent free and clump free litter, new cotton towels, a microwave-able heating pad for all snuggle-safe needs, and at some point Taichi threw a hoodie with cat paws at Yamato for whatever reason.

“Yamato…” Taichi started and tugged Yamato’s sleeve. Yamato followed his line of sight into the next thing Taichi was drooling over – a cat plush with a triple-A battery induced heart-beat.

Taichi looked at the stuffed toy and then at Yamato, the most dumb-arsed pout plastered on his face. His lip was all the way over there, at Osaka.

“Taichi, if you think I am going to spend money on a stuffed animal with a vibrating heartbeat, you are absolutely right. Let’s go get it!”

They raced to the cash register and while Yamato was signing the very long check, he also kinda figured they didn’t take the physics of matter density into account.

So let’s just say the ride home was funny, impressive, and uncomfortable in a gymnastic sort of way.

Also, taking all these stuffy-stuff upstairs required 7 back-and-forths to the car, which made Taichi feel entitled to do his euphonious puppy eyes and the wiggle of his pseudo-somatic tail when Yamato gave in and promised to make burgers for dinner. 

“Now you’re not the only kitten in the house…” Taichi said to Yamato while giving said novelty his first dinner as Yamato flipped meat over the stove. The process involved wrapping up the fuzz ball in a blanket into what Taichi nicknamed ‘purrito’, laying him on his belly, and trying to slip the syringe nipple into his mouth. The purring levels! Oh god, the purring was outta whack that day! And the rippling little-wittle ears!

_Meaw!_

“Shut up – how should we call it?” Yamato put his pinky under the paws the baby extended in a happy search for support, helping Taichi be a proper daddy.

Taichi squinted and sort of tilted his head – kinda looking like a flying broom in the process – as if the whole ceremony would allow him to perform a Jedi mind trick on the cat.

“I donno. What’s your name little guy?”

 _Meaw?_

Before the cat chanced to answer this inquiry, Taichi’s egg clock went off – which signaled the beginning of their first cat-therapy session.

Yamato fetched two beach towels which he rolled into cylinders while Taichi hauled over a small bench from the storage room. They put the towels on opposite sides across the length of the bench, creating a narrow passage between them. Kinda like the feline version of Moses and the Red Sea crossing which is also hella cuter.

So Yamato put Mr. Baby at the beginning of the course and Taichi waited on the other side, tempting him with cat snacks and yummies.

And there he goes!

Naturally, Taichi and Yamato were the _best_ cheerleaders!

“Go, Sir. Pounce-a-lot, go!”

Yamato looked up at Taichi mid his gormless dance. “Really? Sir. Pounce-a-lot? really?”

Taichi stuck out his tongue. “Just throwing it out there, a‘right, you sour cabbage?”

Yamato decided to just _not,_ and clapped at every step the kitty made on his hind legs. “I feel like a football mum.”

“Nah, your facial muscles’ll get jammed if you smile so much.”

“Put a di-” Yamato glanced down at the kitty under his nose, throwing its hind legs wherever, “shove it!”

Had a kitty not leaped into his waiting hands then and there, Taichi would have laughed his stupid arse off at Yamato’s face, but a kitty did leap into his hands then and there, so both of them were too busy transforming into gooey piles. Ain’t no one here have time to be little shits to each other.

“You’re so brave! You’re a courageous little nugget!” Taichi booped his nose against the kitty’s pink one.

Meaw~ the cat went and squished his face.

So Yamato now had this idea.

“How about Yuuki?”

Another boop and Taichi hummed into the soft fur, damn pleased with himself. He also added some hums which had dramatic undertones to demonstrate his thinking process.

One last boop and he pulled his head, like, two CM away – barely – and squinted, taking in the orange stripes and the blue globes which were way too big for its head, though proportionally spherical.

“Yeah, I think he’s a Yuuki.”

He placed Yuuki in the cat bed, which was _huge_ and fluffed up with shearling wool. Bending his knees, Taichi sat next to him and pet his tiny orange head.

“You like Yuuki?”

The cat flipped on his back and grabbed Taichi’s arm with all his fuzzy limbs wrapping around it, trying to bite off his fingers.

“Yeah, I think he likes it.”


	2. A Plain Morning

Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!

“Bloody hell, Taichi, kill it…” Yamato gurgled into Taichi’s shoulder and stroked his nape, the pads of his index chasing after his third digit to the ridges of Taichi’s spine.

“Sorry…” Taichi plucked out his phone from the bedside table, turning off the alarm just in time to see the numerical combination ‘02:36’ spill a filtered pale light over his crumpled sheets. 

“Want me to do it…?” Yamato asked, half at Taichi, half into his blanket.

Taichi leaned over and kissed Yamato’s temple, getting hair into his mouth in the process. He plucked a stray yellow strand from the gap between his teeth and sorta-bleched,“Nah,‘s fine.”

“You’re a good daddy,” Yamato said and unplugged from existence a second later.

Scratching his stomach, Taichi trudged to the kitchen to get the kitty formula. He measured the proportions – three tablespoons of water for every tablespoon of powder – and microwaved it for 30 seconds.

With one drop on his wrist, he assured himself the temperature was about right and dragged himself to the kitty bed, where he plummeted, cross-legged, on his butt.

Carefully lifting the fleece – _Meaw?_ \- an orange head peeked at him. But, oh! The moment those blue marbles saw the food syringe, it was all about them excited _Meaw!-_ s this and _Meaw!-_ s that and _Meaw!-_ s just like this all over the place. _Meaw!_ _Meaw! Meaw!_ Yuuki stretched and rocked into the motions.

Taichi spread out Yuuki’s blanket, put Yuuki in its centre, and rolled them together into a ‘purrito.’ And Yuuki was H-A-P-P-Y! Purring akin to a fresh Harley Davidson ensued in seconds and he was making muffins. This is joy! This is bliss! This is _purr-purr_!

For Taichi as much as Yuuki!

He was such a good boy, sucking on the wonder-nipple, and lapping up his formula! Yes he was! YES HE WAS!

When Yuuki was done, Taichi picked him up and whispered, “Yes you are…” before booping his nose – as per usual at this point – and tucking him back to sleep. He turned on the heartbeats of the cat plush and watched Yuuki snuggle up to it, with some extra purrs on the side.

Taichi got up, lumbered back to the kitchen, detached the wonder-nipple from the syringe, and boiled them both into sparkling cleanliness.

For his final nocturnal activity, Taichi dived into his pillow. The moment he did, Yamato gravitated towards him – something Taichi complimented so they could snuggle like Yuuki to his heartbeat plush. Taichi sniffed Yamato’s hair and grinned into the spot where their individual duvets hybridized. “Such a kitten…”

Four hours later, this cycle repeated itself, only with Yamato half-wobbling, half-banging his head into the door frame on his way to the kitchen.

Breakfast was pretty damn mellow, except for Yuuki who mewled at Yamato’s feet near the table and then went to mewl to his bed before climbing into the blanket and mewling some more. Yamato stared at his reflection being assaulted by the black coffee chunks inside his mug, while Taichi tried to rekindle his cognitive abilities so he could just cut. That. Bloody. Tofu! Eventually, he picked it up from his miso bowel and ate it as is. 

Not much talking happened. The two bipedal organisms in the room were too damn smashed and Yamato downright slipped his head into the dent his elbow formed between his folded arms over the table.

“Should you be drivi-” Yamato yawned into the middle of his sentence.

“Ya-” Taichi replicated Yamato’s yawn, “‘s fine. I’ll drop the car back in my place and take the Yurikamome to Tokyo. When can we stop feeding him every four hours?”

“Starting Wednesday. It’ll go up to every six hours. And we also start potty-training him, so set up the litter box on Tuesday.”

Taichi nodded – or more like he bobbed his head – as if he had anything to do with the information. Eventually, he dragged the chair back way too slowly and every grate was like a punch to Yamato’s fragile nerves. Once his arse finally dislodged from the seat, he kissed Yamato’s cheek and went to put trousers back on.

“You’re back home by four, right?” He yelled over from Yamato’s room.

“Yeah, but I think I’ll bunk off.”

A small pause linked his answer to Taichi’s follow-up. “You skived off yesterday. You should go to the bloody school you’re paying exorbitant amounts to.”

Yamato sighed into the last sip of his coffee. “I know you’re right, but who’s gonna feed Yuuki? It’s not like I can take him in a baby carrier.”

Trousers on, Taichi reappeared in the kitchen. “Ok, first of – yeah, you can. But also, I called in Sora. She’ll be over in thirty.”

He leaned over to kiss Yamato’s cheek again, but Yamato turned his head and flung an arm over Taichi’s neck, pulling him in and meshing their mouths together.

On his tongue, bitter coffee and vapour melted into each other, and Taichi exhaled their by-product through his nostrils and into Yamato’s.

“I’m a genius, right? Say I’m a genius,” Taichi said between kisses.

“No…” Yamato pulled Taichi’s face back into his mouth.

Taichi gently tried removing Yamato’s arm from his neck. “Luv–mmf.” And then he tried harder because Yamato was one strong bastard. “Gotta leg it, mate. See you for dinner, yeah?”

“Sure,” Yamato said and finally let go.

“And you, Yuuki! Be good!” Taichi shouted in the general direction of the living room – _Meaw_! – before bolting the door behind him. With the spare key Yamato copied only for him, one might add.

True to his word, Sora appeared in the door around thirty minutes after Taichi left and ignored Yamato because CAT!

All sorts of “Eee!”s flourished through his living room before she as much as pissed in his direction.

“Sorry sorry! He’s just so pure!” Sora said, laughing as she did, and gave Yamato a one-armed hug. “I brought my knitting kit with me, so I’ll make him a little jumper!”

“Thank you, Sor’. You’re a life saver, you are.”

He spent a few of minutes showing her the equipment and its whereabouts, plus a couple of handling instructions and then bolted out the front door, because – shit! – there’s gonna be traffic!

Not even three metres out the door before – “YAMATO!” followed him.

He turned around and a pair of trousers hit his jaw. Good thing none of the buttoned bits.

Right.

“Do the world a favour, will you?” Sora said and locked the door behind him.

Physics of Black Holes and a practice lesson in Thermodynamics waited Yamato back in the physics faculty. Both were spent texting Sora every hour or so to make sure everything was alright and entertain himself with her cat pics – which turned into a fashion show mighty fast.

On the one hand, he didn’t in any way endorse dressing up animals unless it was crucial to help them regulate body heat. On the other, he really melted when, during an explanation on the hawking radiation emitted from black holes, he received a picture of Yuuki in a cozy cashmere hoodie. Plus, Yuuki fell into the first cat-o-gory – so Yamato only instructed Sora to not overdo it.

Couldn’t get home any sooner, the moment his TA finished class, Yamato catapulted home, thanked Sora from the abysmal bottom of his heart, and gave her permission to post the pictures on the commercial website Koushiro was managing for her. 

Once she was out, Yamato went room by room, making sure there was no one else in the house.Once assured, he slipped his arse next to Yuuki’s bed and pet his baby-fluff head.

“I have a something for you.”

_Meow?_

“Yes, you!”

He gave Yuuki a couple more belly rubs – avoiding the baby-claws flung at him – before getting on his feet and walking up to his wardrobe.

Throwing out dirty boxers, old slippers, and two bags of old clothes he planned on bringing to charity, Yamato found his old Alpaca plush.

It was all colours of the rainbow in pastels, about 20 CM tall, and other than a bit of lint stuck to the misshapen ear toddler!Yamato chewed off when he was three – and still retained his oral fixation for some reason – it was in mint condition.

Present-day!Yamato vacuumed it a bit and after once again making sure no one spontaneously teleported into his flat, he gave the toy a hug. He sighed into its polyester fur and inhaled the memories which clung to it.

Still holding the alpaca close to his chest, Yamato carried it to the living room, where Yuuki was chafing his still non-retractable claws against a cardboard box.

Yamato kneeled near the shredded thing and put the plush toy next to Yuuki’s small body.

Once no longer preoccupied with demolishing the cardboard to its existential particles, Yuuki wobbled up to the soft gift he received. He poked his little nose into the fabric, sniffing a few times all over the place. Then he tried slapping it in the face or something before finally curling up to it and purring.

_Meow~_

If this wasn’t precious, Yamato didn’t know what is.

After one more round of feeding and peeing, accompanied by the alpaca Yuuki now refused to part with, and additional physiotherapy to reach the daily quota , it was high time Yamato returned to being a functional adult of the variety that didn’t subject to the after-effects of Cat Proximity.

_Meow~_ Yuuki went and fell asleep, tucked between his new toy, a baby blanket and the heartbeat cat plush they bought him.

Glancing at his phone, Yamato reckoned he should start preparing dinner. Taichi’d be here in half an hour and he’s gonna be stupid hungry. Fighting him off the green organisms in the fridge would be a special kind of hell.

Indeed, with the mixer running in the kitchen while he was putting all the pressure from his hips into kneading dough, Taichi’s presence was announced to Yamato only via his gurgling stomach right next to Yamato’s ear and his chin planting into Yamato’s shoulder.

“What’cha making?” Taichi prolonged the question into a cartoonish sing-song intonation.

“Sweet potato soup and five-cereal buns.”

Taichi’s nose trailed along Yamato’s nape and went a bit messy-messy with the fine hairs at the base of his skull. His fingers found Yamato’s on the rolling pin and stroked them. “You have long fingers, it’s attractive.”

“Yeah…”

“I-“ Taichi started but the continuation permeated through the kiss he left on the skin of Yamato’s neck.

“Me too…” Yamato sighed over the first batch of buns he inserted into the oven.

Taichi’s fingers lingered on his shoulder, lining a path to his shoulder blades, but eventually they left along with the rest of Taichi’s body – who went to fawn over Yuuki.

“When’s the next feeding?” Taichi not-yelled from the living room.

“50 minutes? And we need to de-flea him today.”

Taichi returned to the kitchen, glanced at the wall clock, and rolled up his sleeves. He picked up a fistful of flour and coated his hands with it before ripping a piece of dough and beginning to roll it into a ball.

“Think we’ll get to eat?” He asked and put his bun-to-be in the pan.

“Should be. These,” Yamato pointed at the batch which was already baking, “are gonna be done in 20 minutes and we could insert the next batch into the oven after Yuuki had dinner.”

Taichi hummed, acknowledging the information, and they spent the next ten minutes finishing rolling the dough and cutting lines into it.

Dinner was had in front of the computer they substituted the telly for in Yamato’s room, followed by Yamato plunging backwards into Taichi’s shoulder and Taichi wrapping him up.

And it was hella funny, ‘cause Yamato was still doing this thing where he suddenly remembered he had manly pride and would try acting on top of his game by getting pissed off at Taichi for being clingy just so he won’t seem mushi.

Though he totally was! 

They finished watching the game, fed Yuuki, combed out his flees and applied the balm, put him to sleep, and then put themselves to sleep in a fabulous crashing-through-sheer-adoration of the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) If you don't know what cat proximity is, go check xkcd


	3. For You to Notice…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting this! I'm a bit sick ^^'

“Air out the sheets when you’re done, a’right?” Yamato, who was in the midst of combing Yuuki with a toothbrush to incite grooming behaviour, asked Taichi, who was in the middle of making them strawberry & maple pancakes.

_Meaw! Meaw!_

“Aye aye. Leave me the swatter before you leave,” Taichi answered in the middle of flipping the dough. “What’s he getting today?”

“A check-up and being neutered.”

Taichi finished flipping all the pancakes and snickered into the pan. He made sure the butter wasn’t burning and that the dough wasn’t spilling to the sides, and approached Yuuki, who was cradled in Yamato’s arms, to rub his head.

“Who’s gonna get his bollocks cut?”

_Meaw!_

“Yes! Yes you will! No more bollocks for you!”

_Meaw! Meaw!_

Taichi booped him on the nose and then he booped Yamato on the nose and dodged the slap he was gonna get in favour of removing the pancakes from the stove and shuffling them into a decorative plate.

Tea, coffee, chocolate syrup, cream, and they were good to go!

“How is it?” Taichi glimpsed over the rim of his coffee mug.

Yamato hummed around his bite, wiping syrup dripplets off his chin. “’s real’ good.”

 _Meaw!_ Yuuki tried latching onto Yamato’s foot.

“I fed you 20 minutes ago!”

_Meaw!_

“Nope! My turn.”

_Meaw! Meaw! Meaw!_

“You’re worse than Taichi.”

Taichi pouted.

_Meaw!_

“Yes you are!... Taichi, put that lip back inside your face.”

“You’re mean.” Taichi stuck out his tongue. “Look at all this good food I made you!” Then he ducked his head under the table. “He’s a big meanie, ain’t he?”

_Meaw!_

“Right?! A real bastard.”

“Taichi-“

Taichi stuck out his tongue at Yamato again and went back to petting Yuuki.

“Put that shit back in your mouth and stop gossiping about me with the cat.”

“Nope.”

“… Guess you don’t need that pancake, then.” Yamato retaliated by sticking his fork into Taichi’s mountain of slippery syrups and fluffy snow top of cream.

“No-” Taichi pounced on his food, grabbing pieces of dough in his fists, and shoved it down the backside of his pharynx till he couldn’t even close his mouth. Syrup gushed past his chin, up his cheeks, stuck in his hair –everywhere, to be honest – and his hands were sticky with butter and drool. He looked like a hamster… or like one of those inflated sex dolls. And not the fancy type. The cheap crap from the 80s. Yamato stared at him and the marvel that he was and couldn’t do much else, really.

“I wuv ‘ou,” Taichi tried enunciating past the chocolate trickling down his throat.

“… Something’s wrong with you, mate.”

“I wuv ‘ou,” Taichi repeated and swallowed the chunk in his mouth.

“You’re so fucking weird.”

Well, yeah, Yamato ‘wuved’ him too, but throwing the words out there at breakfast was kinda… Gay? And not in the awesome way of two guys sucking cock? But Taichi got it so it’s fine.

Indeed, his _boyfriend_ – Yamato would never fucking get used to this, bah! – smiled at him with his iconic brown eyes above his last sip of coffee, got up, and kissed Yamato’s cheek before exiting the kitchen. “Dishes on you.”

As the lock clicked in place and the chime of Taichi inserting his copy of Yamato’s apartment keys – yes, they were at _that_ stage of their relationship – faded in the distance, Yamato wiped the grease off his cheek, skedaddled to clean the sink, and got all of Yuuki’s necessities in order.

Carrier? Check.

Baby blankets? Check. 

Heartbeat mama cat toy? Check

Alpaca?... Yamato did a quick one around the room and found it on the carpet, covering Yuuki like a blanket near their bed.

He moved it just a bit and already got a protesting _Meaw!_ From the angry Yuuki. So, as compensation, Yamato rubbed the top of his head and any lingering resentment was converted into purring.

“You like cuddling with your alpaca? Yes?”

_Purrrr!_

House keys? Check.

Wallet? Check.

Phone? Check.

And so, along with his alpaca, Yamato took Yuuki to get his shots. They rode the bus to avoid traumatizing Yuuki any further. Cramped, little Vespas on big-ass highways were no place for a tiny kitten. And it was one _long_ bus ride! The moment a bunch of fishermen geezers caught glimpse of the kitten, it was a special kind of feline-related Q&A hell. Not to mention some lady who stood behind them tried chatting Yamato up and he was _not_ feeling it. Well, they were sweet, though.

Getting off the bus couldn’t have come sooner, and when he did, Sora was in the process of giving him a ringer.

Yamato swiped the green icon. “Oi?”

“You or Taichi home?”

“Nah, Taichi’s at school and I’m at the vet’s. Why?”

“Oh… What are you doing with Yuuki? Want me to bung over?”

“He’s with me, getting his shots.” Something was suspicious. Sora was uncharacteristically hyper. “Why so kind?”

Sora pretended to be offended deep down to her core. “I am shooketh! Why would you accuse me of such unbecoming motives?!”

“… Your words, not mine.”

She ‘ha-ha’ed through the line, but culled it into a soft sigh at the end here. “My cat fashion line’s gotten super popular. I got a call from Vogue Nihon yesterday.”

“Wicked! That’s bloody terrific!”

“Thank you! So I was wondering if I could visit my muse again.”

“We’ll be home on the weekend but, dude, I told you, I don’t want Yuuki to get dragged around, so… Please don’t come over just to get him in and out of costumes.”

“Pinky swear. I already have the sizing, so I only need to get inspired. Kou can photoshop the outfits on him anyway.”

“Alright. Thanks.”

“Of course. Ta.” And she hung up.

The rest of the road to Dr. Honoda’s office was free, smooth as Taichi’s biceps after three hours at the gym, and held no further poking at Yamato’s waning patience. He did have to wait longer than he did last time, and there was this obnoxious Cacadu that-

“Ishida and Yuuki?” Dr. Honoda peeked her head through the door with her I’m-twenty-years-younger-then-my-id-says-I-am smile.

Said smile grew several levels of magnitude into I’m-fourty-years-younger-then-my-id-says-I-am when Yuuki had displayed the results of two weeks of physiotherapy by swinging around his hind legs when he ran around the wee obstacle course – perfect for wee him! – and jumped around. He still fell sometimes, but this snuffalafagous was going places! Like up Yamato’s jeans, claws and all.

Then came the less fun aspect of this visit.

Yamato stroked behind Yuuki’s ears as the kitty was being sedated and had his rear end business shaved. Then, Yamato exited the room and fidgeted outside. After about half an hour, he was called back in, greeted by the sight of Dr. Honoda gently petting the head of a slumbering Yuuki.

When Yamato entered the room, she smiled at him again. “He’s a brave little one and he’ll be just fine. He’s gonna act a bit high in the next few hours. There may be some wobbling and falling down, so avoid placing him on high surfaces.”

Nodding, almost without noticing the motions of his own dumb head, Yamato carefully picked up Yuuki’s slumbering frame and placed him back in the safe haven of his baby blankets and Alpaca.

Thank-fucking-god, the trip back home was way saner, without anyone jumping the urge to disturb the napping Yuuki with their ‘KAWAII’ shrieks.

Even before unlocking the door, the tender aroma of rice brewing with pepper and frying beef sieved through the cracks and penetrated Yamato’s flaring nostrils.

Unlocking the door, he found Taichi hunched over the stove in the kitchen, a towel slung over his left shoulder and Yamato’s apron tied around his waist, stirring something in the pot.

Quietly, Yamato put the carrier near Yuuki’s bed – so he could climb out of it on his own when he woke up – and walked towards Taichi. He rested his palms in the dip of Taichi’s hips and Taichi swayed into it, fitting into the mold Yamato created around him.

The oil in his hair carried the scent of his scalp into Yamato’s nostrils and when Taichi turned to give him a kiss-sneak-attack, spices and milk filled the breath he exhaled on Yamato’s lips.

“How is he…?” He whispered into the breadth of space leading to Yamato’s lungs.

“He’s fine. Sleepy.” He nodded with his chin at the spatula in Taichi’s hand as it flipped the content of the pan. “What’s that?” 

“Burgers.”

“Of course it is.”

Taichi turned his head again with mock offense and a hand on his heart –just so he could fully be a drama queen. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you too good for likes of us?!”

Yamato mini-punched Taichi’s shoulder and dived into the shower. When he exited said shower – boxers only – he found Taichi crouched on his hind legs, burying his nose in cat fur, and inhaling all the way to his brain. Then he tossed his head upside down, letting the now awake Yuuki hunt his hair.

“Careful. We’ve just been back from the vet. I don’t want him swallowing your nasty shampoo chemicals. Why do you think we paid so bloody much for a mouse on a string?”

Taichi stuck out his tongue and booped Yuuki’s nose, as was his practice.

“Yamato?”

The aforementioned hummed.

“I require more snuggle dumplings.”

“Get off it,” Yamato threw over his shoulder while trying to climb back into his house jeggings.

“I’m serious, tho?”

Securing the knot around his waist lest his trousers fell off his arse and took him down with them, Yamato stared at Taichi with this kinda skeptic something-something which may have been bordering on the seriousness Taichi asked of him.

“Taic-“

“Com’mon! Please?”

“bu-“

“Pretty please? I’m not asking just to be greedy. I really think he could use the company.” Taichi smiled at Yamato, in a big way. “Everyone needs a friend, right?”

Ten shades of ‘god-dammit-Taichi!’ did a number on Yamato’s mug and landed on the upper lip he sucked into his mouth. “…It’s a dilemma,” he eventually said and refocused on Taichi and the bouncing Yuuki. “I need-”

“I know. Take your time.”

The aforementioned lip left Yamato’s gums and stretched slightly into his cheek instead. He tried biting off that stupid smile, so he went hiding in the kitchen under the pretense of setting up the table.

“And we should go to the shrine and pray to that new cat-goddess,” Taichi added, following Yamato’s deliciously swaying bum.

“She’s a goddess of safe passage in trains, Taichi. Nothing to do with cats.”

“Oh.” Taichi rubbed Yuuki’s cheeks, observing the whiskers extending past them quiver in delight and breathing in cat-fur infested air.

“Yamato?”

“What?!” came from the kitchen.

“Let’s move in together.”

Silence resounded from the kitchen.

“… As in, officially. So I could get my mail here? And pay rent.”

Silence.

“I already have my toothbrush and pajamas here. And the key.”

“…”

“And we have two babies together.”

Yamato poked his out through the doorframe, his eyes all the way up to the afterlife and panic everywhere else. “We have one baby, Taichi! One baby!”

With one last stroke to Yuuki, Taichi straightened up and looked over at Yamato. “Mate, it’s fine. Relax. I’m not saying we should get married. I just think it makes sense to move in together at this point,’s all. I see you more than my mum or Hikari. I make food here. I sleep here most of the week. It’s about time I paid my share of the bills. I’m just being practical. But you’re allowed to say no if you’re not ready for this yet.” 

A clear eviction of air purified Yamato’s lungs and he took a few steps towards Taichi, where he crashed into his tank-topped shoulder. “I know, I know, I just… I donno… it’s a lot at once, you know?”

Taichi threw his arms around Yamato and kissed whatever piece of his face close enough to Taichi’s under-chin. “I know. Take your time to think about it.” His hand dropped to the small of Yamato’s back, a spot well-known for pacifying him. “And you know, if you say yes, and I move in and we see it doesn’t work – we can take a step back.”

“Thanks.”

“Will you?”

“What?”

“Think about it?”

Yamato met Taichi lips midway, smacking them gently a couple of times with his. “Promise.”

Taichi smiled _this_ wide into the dialogue of their mouths, and rubbed Yamato’s back, up and down and then in small circles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Tama Daimyōjin - The cat spirit godess of safe passage, was a real life cat named Tama who was the station master at Kishi station and upon her death, was given a Shinto bureal and enshrined. Thereafter, she was elavted into godhood. She's mentioned in Noragami.


	4. Everybody Wants to Pass As Cats

“What the shit are you doing?” Yamato asked Taichi, who sat on the floor in front of the open fridge and shovelled its content into his mouth with no particular order.

  


“It's that time of the year when I visit my mate, your fridge, and eat chocolate spread with a spoon,” Taichi answered, licking… something which may have indeed been chocolate spread, but with equal probability may have _not_ been chocolate spread.

  


“What? November?!”

  


“It’s midterms!” - Taichi protested as he scooped up a ball of ice cream, squashed it between two cookies, and shoved that sandwich whole into his mouth.

“Oh.”

“’eth,” Taichi chewed around whatever was supposed to be ‘yes’.

“So you’re not taking a nip to the rescue shelter with me?”

Slowly, Taichi moved his head from the fridge’s second shelf towards Yamato as if this whole situation was ripped off an anime. His ears twitched every bit like Yuuki’s during feeding time and his puppy eyes were on max.

He gulped down his sugar sandwich with on enormous bite and practically pranced towards Yamato. “Really?!”

Yamato gave him the eyeball for a second, trying not to laugh at the crumbs stuck to his nose as he flicked them away from Taichi. “…’Eth.”

Taichi brushed the additional crumbs off his Dragon Ball pyjama-house-wear-chores-multipurpose tee, or more like he slapped them off, and catapulted to Yamato’s room and their mutual wardrobe.

He was back before Yamato even finished pissing, ready in his skinny jeans and muscle tank.

Spritzing the loo with the dying remains of the deodorant, Yamato gave him the once-over, lingering on Taichi’s adorable booty.

“What are you dolling up for?”

Cocking his hip just so and throwing both arms over his head so his triceps flexed all nice and proper, Taichi smiled at Yamato, posing like the gayest male model in Sport’s Illustrated – lady’s edition. Or queer edition.

“Like what you see?” He winked at Yamato. “I want to look nice for our new baby.” He flexed his muscles again. “What d’ya think?”

Yamato stared. The eye roll was spiritual.

“Com’on! What do you think?”

Yamato busied himself with following the lint on his flannel and plucking it out. “You look nice…” and the pink at the tip of his ears implied “nice” meant “sexy AF.”

“I know,” Taichi said and skipped over to kiss Yamato’s cheek.

He was a jumping, thumping, bumping ball of energy all through the drive as well, his arse shaking in his seat to the tune of a song he was humming to himself.

Yamato smiled at the ever-changing scenes of Tokyo as those blinked out of view before him and joined in on the song when Taichi broke into the chorus along with the radio: “Yooouuuuuu! You’re sex is on fire!” and they screamed songs pretty much all the way to the shelter.

Taichi didn’t enter the shelter – he pranced his way in like a ballerina. Yamato experienced so much silent joy just watching him being alive.

They walked past the cages and the many “Adopt Me” signs decorating them. Maybe bringing Taichi here wasn’t the best idea. He stopped near every single cage and begged to adopt whatever puppy or kitten or birdie occupying them. And how could Yamato blame him? They were just so friggin’ adorable! So many sons and daughters – he wanted them all!

Look at that Dogu! And look at that pooch! ‘S just that Yamato still had some leftover pride outside the bedroom to coo in public.

“What about this little fella?” Taichi crouched near one small cage, the one located smack centre in the wall of pets-to-be.

A black ball of fuzz glimpsed at Yamato with his one blue eye and the hollow void left in the adjacent socket. When Taichi poked his index through the bars, the kitty pounced at it, rolled on his back and purred, trying to put it in his mouth.

A soft smile, almost nostalgic, which went beyond his usual ‘maximum sunshine’, tugged at Taichi’s lips.

The tips of his hair tickled Yamato’s thighs, and Yamato ran a hand through them after making sure they had no spectators. “You love them a bit broken, huh?”

Taichi raised his head to look at him, still with that dumb smile in place. Two arms forward and he hugged Yamato’s knees. “Yeah…” he told them and kissed each one.

One of Yamato’s arms had to grab the wall behind him before he plunged, face-first, into dog shit. But his other hand dived to Taichi’s cheek, feeling the already familiar, and still always crazy-warm skin; smooth – and stubby – against his palm.

Taichi pulled Yamato down and some discreet, yet cozy, lip-mashing ensued, moving in tandem.

  


As they parted slightly for a breather and Taichi continued smacking soft kisses on Yamato’s face, Yamato glanced at the cage and tendered a loving look at the black fuzzball.

“Yeah… we can adopt him,” Yamato laid on Taichi’s lips.

“Booyah…” Taichi murmured back at him.

  


And they got a shiny new carrier for that purpose! To avoid repulsing the new member of their family with Yuuki’s scent.

  


Paddings were made, documents were signed, and Dr. Honoda had been notified they were on their way to see her. 

  


And the Dr. couldn’t have been happier!

There wasn’t much to be done about his missing eye, but Mr. New Cat had no fleas, so they just gave him his shots and drove home.

“All right, you want to go set up the apartment?” Yamato asked the unbuckling Taichi.

In the first days of adjustment, it was crucial to keep Yuuki and the new baby apart so they could get used to each other’s scents without becoming aggressive. For that purpose, Taichi and Yamato planned to keep the new guy in the guest bedroom – AKA, Taichi’s former room before he started sleeping with Yamato permanently – for a couple of days before setting a see-through fence between Yuuki’s space and black-fuzzball’s space for a couple more days. Then – they’d see how it goes.

“Sure-” Taichi kissed Yamato’s cheek and dashed up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Yamato took the carrier out of the car, letting the kitten breath in some non-AC air, made sure he’s comfy with extra cushioning, and beeped the doors locked. He took a deep breath.

After about ten minutes, Taichi called hip up. “Rooooooommm’s ready!” He announced with the same vocal inflection of ‘Let’s get ready to rumble!’

He waited with the door open when Yamato came up.

“Odin,” he said, point blank.

Yamato blinked at him as if he was somehow just assaulted by norse mythology.

“We can call him Odin,” Taichi elaborated and pointed at his eye. “You get me?”

Instinctively, Yamato peeked down at the cat in his carrier, who gave him a one-eyed, lazy look in return. “Are you Odin, mate?”

_Marr~_

“Yeah, Odin’s stellar.” 

When he lifted his head back to Taichi, he found his boyfriend scrunching his lips till he looked like an old aunt’s purse, trying his very best to hold in his dumb-arsed smile.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

  
“What?!”

“Just thought it’s nice the number of nekos in my household tripled itself,” he answered into the smile he couldn’t hold in anymore.

Yamato processed for a moment and sank into crispier shades of red before barking, “Piss off, Taichi!”

Before he could storm off, though, Taichi cocooned him in his arms so Yamato couldn’t move his elbows and kissed his hairline.

“Bugger off!”

“No,” Taichi replied and kissed him again.

Some wriggling ensued, but Taichi just squished more of Yamato’s ribs.

“Tai-“

“Nope.”

Really, he relented only when Yamato dragged them to Odin’s temporary bedroom and dropped Taichi on the bed. Elegantly putting the carrier on the chair and releasing Odin, Yamato zeroed in on the toppled Taichi and straddled his hips. Shirt throwing and throat sucking – and some other sucking – would have followed if Taichi hadn’t pinched Yamato’s thigh after one glimpse at their new baby.

“What?...” Yamato rasped near Taichi’s ear.

“I can’t do it when he’s watching,” Taichi answered and looked extremely conflicted about all this, because Yamato was so sexy… but the cat was looking at them… but Yamato was taking his shirt off… but kitten… but other kitten!

Yamato raised his head to look at his boyfriend and blinked. Once. Twice. Then he dropped his head again and kissed Taichi’s temple.

Taichi’s hands gravitated towards Yamato’s waist and floated along his back till they lay perched on his shoulder blades.

“Later…?”

Steady hums were evicted from Yamato’s lips – the soundtrack of his content.

Maybe some mellow exchange of kisses would have ensued if Yamato’s fingertips hadn’t started tickling. He lifted his head – begrudgingly so – and found Odin trying to suck and nibble on his index, baby teeth and all.

“Taichi, can you bring a bottle?”

“Sure.” Taichi hauled himself to his feet, one last squeeze to Yamato’s waist at his disposal. “And treat Yuuki to some extra attention while I’m at it. Being the big bro is tough!”

“Safe.”

Yamato pet Odin’s tiny cheek and ran his third digit along his back. When he did, Odin chased after it, dropping on his back and trying to fit said finger back into his mouth.

So Yamato indulged him, wiggling his fingers for Odin to play fetch with. Once he grabbed one, he tried sucking on it again and Yamato let him.

“You didn’t get to say goodbye to your mama, huh?”

He was answered with more determined sucking.

“My mum left me too…”

“Hey…” came from the doorway.

Taichi was leaning against the frame, watching the interaction unfurl, and cradling a bottle of kitten formula.

Without saying anything, Yamato straightened up, and turned Odin into a purrito with their freshly-washed baby blanket so he could perform the feeding on his lap.

Taichi didn’t need to be summoned. He sat next to him and handed Yamato the warm bottle after fastening the wonder-nipple.

Odin latched on to it the moment it was on a vector aiming for the general direction of his goo-goo face, and he did it faster than Taichi latching on to any of Yamato’s-

“What a good foody boy you are,” Yamato murmured at the kitten on his thighs. He looked so entranced by his duty, his back went stiff so to not accidentally cause any discomfort for his new child.

Taichi stroked the slope of Yamato’s neck, fingers lilting into the space behind his ear, fanning a few stray hairs out of his face.

For a while, no sound permeated the room other the rhythmic suction and the high pitched nothing, like a subtle, omnipresent tinnitus. Their quiet breaths filled the sheets. And something else, like aerodynamic tension.

“Taichi…?”

Odin finally detached himself from the bottle and Yamato wiped excess milk off his chin.

“Mmm?”

“Let’s move in together.”

A brief eviction of breath stiffened the muscles lining Taichi’s spinal cord before he dropped his head on Yamato’s shoulder, semi-snuggling in, with an arm coming around Yamato’s waist. “That’s a nice idea.”

“Yeah…”

“Yeah…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Odin - according to the poetic Edda, Odin was the head of the Norse/old Germanic Pantheon and traded his eye for a sip of Mimir's Well of Urd. Ergo, Taichi's associatin. 
> 
> 2) Neko means cat in japanese, but it also refers to a gay man who'se a strict bottom. Yamato isn't a strict bottom, but Taichi likes to tease.


	5. Epilogue: I Wanna Be a Lion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, that's the last one for this story ^^  
> Sorry it took me some time - I had exams.
> 
> I'm working on my next fic right now and I'm about the midway point and I reached several conclusions: It's much harder for me to write significant conflicts for Taichi an Yamato because I genuinly believe they will have a good, healthy relationship - but there isn't much of point in writing a long story without conflicts. So that took a lot of work. It's also much harder to write a scene when there are more than three participants in it (Next fic is a multi-ship). So I think it's gonna take me some time to bring the fic to a point i'm happy with. After that fic, I will likely start workin on my original work and maybe write the more OOC fic ideas I had.

It was exactly when Yuuki burrowed in the blankets to create a small nest for himself, followed by an energetic Odin who insisted they should still be playing, that the doorbell shirked through the house.

_Meow!_

_Marr~_

_Marr~_

Unfortunately, it meant Yamato was forced to be ripped away from this iconic due exactly when Yuuki finally allowed himself to show Odin his fluffy bum and let Odin groom his step-brother’s tail for him. It took them two long, _long_ weeks to get to this point, filled with feline paranoia, and zigzagging between lifting the fence and putting it back in place once.

This was the equivalent of a toddler’s first successful potty experience, and Yamato was forced to miss out on it because some bellend decided this was a good time to live up to his full-shmuck potential!

And where was his bloody Taichi anyway?! He’s supposed to drive him to Yamaha motors today to pick up his sexy, new Supersport YZF-R1 bike so he could finally hold a proper funeral to his Vespa. Poor old thing died a week ago with Odin’s toy in the exhaust pipe. How? Qinlongmon knows. Taichi even convinced him to get the white model instead of pre-ordering the ultra-violet one. He should bring his butt here and deliver!

At the door waited a huge mascot shaped like the Cheshire Cat – neon pink stripes, maniacal grin, and everything. This was Five Nights at Freddy’s coming to life right at his doorstep and Yamato’s hand automatically drifted to the flick-knife in his back pocket.

“Yamato, it’s me!” Taichi’s muffled voice emerged from the belly of the beast – and it came out mighty fast, before Yamato offed his head.

A stumped look plastered itself to Yamato’s face for a moment, going all the way from his scrunched and battle-ready forehead to his loose-hanging jaw. That _thing_ covered Taichi from toe to hair – which was _very_ impressive.

Honestly, it looked like the cat swallowed him. It was massively oversized on him and even left space for his hair in what was supposed to be the cat’s mouth.

This was legit some creepy shit.

“Taichi… what the actual fuck?”

Taichi shifted his feet around. If it weren’t for the huge cat on his face, Yamato may have been able to figure out if he was studying them or just venting out stress. “I donno… Guess I got kinda jealous. We’ve been running around the babies for two weeks. Reckoned if I were a cat you’d pay more attention to me?”

Under that dumbarsed cat mask, Yamato knew Taichi tried projecting his infamous puppy-eyes straight into Yamato’s brain, traversing the limits of the space-time plane.

Well, if Yamato won’t hump this slamming power-bottom, then what are we even doing here?

“You’re _so_ -” Yamato face-palmed, took off his clothes – shirt, trousers, fun bits – lowered the front zip holding Taichi’s horror suit together, and fit himself, naked, inside along with Taichi. Then he zipped them back up. For privacy and stuff. 

It was actually much more spacious on the inside than it looked on the outside. What is this Tardis?

His arms curled under Taichi’s armpits till his fingertips rested on his shoulders and he burrowed his nose in Taichi’s sweaty neck.

“Idiot.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Cats showing each other their backs is a sign of trust.  
> 2) Cheshire Cat - from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol (I.E. my favourte book).


	6. Credits

**The Oral Cigarettes** – Kyouran Hey Kids!

 **Dashboard Confessional** – A Plane Morning

 **Dashboard Confessional** – For You to Notice

 **Kings of Leo** n – sex on fire

 **Counting Crows** – Mr. Jones

As always, special thanks for my incredible beta, Jokessho! And for 50Cyg who was the first to read this fic and comment.

And a huge thanks for anyone who read this!

**Author's Note:**

> 1) While this fic was inspired by Kitten Lady videos, I should point out that I'm not a veterinarian so any information found in this fic could be a misrepresentation of the proper way to treat cats. If you happen upon a stray kitten and wish to take care of it, please consult a veterinarian or a proffessional.


End file.
